Sponsors & Supporters

Temple Song

Temple Song

Temple Song 2014

Middle Temple Hall is special for many reasons: for the beauty of its design and architecture, for the glorious double hammer beam roof begun in 1562, for the historic law courts that still surround it. It is special for the great oak table cut from one tree in Windsor Forest and floated down the Thames to take up residence before the hall opened, for the halls importance to Elizabethan London and because Shakespeare almost certainly performed here in Twelfth Night at Candelmas, 1602 when the play was given it’s first ever performance.

Over the last few years, since the inauguration of Temple Song in 2006, we have found that Middle Temple Hall is also special because it has one of the best acoustics for chamber music and song in London.

I have performed here now with an array of the best singers in the world, most of them discovering Middle Temple Hall for the first time, and they all say the same thing: what a wonderful place to sing.

Olaf Bär, Thomas Allen, Felicity Lott, Christoph Pregardien, Ian Bostridge, Simon Keenlyside, Sergei Leiferkus, Gerald Finley, Willard White, Robert Holl, Danielle De Niese – they all say it is one of the very best acoustics for song that they know.

The 2014 season starts in June with a very special concert. The great British bass, Sir John Tomlinson, world famous for his opera interpretations, will join me for a performance of Schubert’s sublime Winterreise, a masterpiece to which he will bring his unique concentration and commitment.

The following month the great tenor Ian Bostridge returns to Middle Temple, this time in the company of the delightful soprano, Sophie Daneman. Together they will perform Schumann’s wedding present to his beloved Clara, the song cycle ‘Myrten’. Myrten comprises twenty five songs, including some of his most famous and beloved, equally divided for a male and female singer. As a companion to this rare complete performance we will perform some of the enchanting duets that Schumann wrote for soprano and tenor.

In October the leading Austrian mezzo, Angelika Kirchschlager is another singer making a welcome return to the glorious Middle Temple Hall. Her programme of Schubert, Brahms and Liszt will play to her outstanding strengths which make her in my opinion one of the greatest recitalists on the stage today.

Finally the enchanting young British soprano Lucy Crowe, who is making a tremendous reputation for herself as one of the brightest stars in the worlds of opera and oratorio, joins me for a lovely programme of French and English song. A treat for the Christmas season.

Julius Drake – Temple Song Artistic Director

Supporters

We are indebted to the Temple Song Founders, a group of enlightened and generous supporters, without whose sense of adventure, advice and encouragement, the series could not have come to fruition.